8/30/2001

Despite the crash of computer dot.com stocks, the computer is not only with us but a way of life. Ask anyone under thirty, and, especially, under twenty if they have a computer and they will look at you as if you had asked if they have a head. So, when Michael Lewis went looking at the changes the computer and the internet had made on the culture, he went seeking the under twenties and in some cases under fifteen! There they are in his book "Next" (W.W. Norton $22.95).

He begins with Jonathan Lebed, who is fifteen, and who became the SEC's "most wanted". Why? Jonathan, whose father could not work the computer and was the one in the family who played with the train set in the basement, made the $8,000 his parents gave him grow to $800,000 in one year by being a day trader. He was his own stock analyst. He would also be his own CNBC, going on line in the stock chat rooms under various names to pump the stock. When the SEC learned that Jonathan was fifteen, they sent letters to his parents, which at first frightened the life out of them. They hired a lawyer. The only one who remained calm through the whole event was Jonathan, who, by the way, is going into his Junior year in high school and with a BMW of his own.

Michael has written the funniest scene where he interviews Arthur Leavitt, who is highly indignant that a youngster can profit from stock trading. What will this do to full stock brokers? How dare this kid be so successful and not be guilty? They are sure that he must be in collusion with a swindler. No way! Why not? Jonathan doesn't want any adult to know that he is only fifteen.

Talk about common sense legal advice. There is Marcus Arnold, also fifteen years old, who is the most successful advisor on the Askme website, or was, until the other legal advisers found out his true age and experience. His law degree came from the school of "Law and Order" and "Judge Judy", etc. Again, his parents were loving but without legal knowledge.

I did mention to Michael ,when we taped, that in all the cases that he used there was a strong bond between the mother and the son. This was most evident with fourteen year old Daniel Sheldon who lives with his single parent mother in a small town in Northern England. She bought him a computer when ,because of the election of the Labor Party, scholarships to better schools for underprivileged kids were cancelled. Daniel took the concept of "Napster" and refined the ideas into "Gnutella" which would threaten the ownership of intellectual property. Michael told me that Daniel had been so fascinated by Huxley and his writings that it had inspired him to bring down and read many classics from the internet. Daniel, at fourteen, is an iconoclastic thinker who supports a socialistic world for the internet, shades of G.B. Shaw.

As always Michael writes with humor as he takes the reader into other lives. I asked him what Jim Clark, the subject of "The New New Thing" and the other Silicon Valley venture capitalists were doing during this melt down? They are sitting on their yachts waiting. As for Michael, he is writing a screenplay about Silicon Valley. After hearing about his misadventures in Paris and the problems in getting an apartment in working order, that, too, could be material for his next book. Michael and his wife will be guests at one of the Los Angeles Library Council Dinners.

The book that will garner attention where ever books are discussed in Los Angeles is Bebe Moore Campbell's "What You Owe Me" (Putnam $25.95). It is a book that will envelop you and surprise you as she weaves a story of three generations. Hosanna Clark, an African-American woman, has come to Los Angeles in 1948 with her brother. They have left the family in Texas after their father was robbed of their land by false claims of unpaid taxes by white politicians. Hosanna's only work opportunity is scrubbing hotel rooms with other Black women. Into their cleaning group comes a Holocaust survivor, Gilda Rosenstein, who speaks very little English. If you do not speak the language of a country, the one skill to fall back on, is cleaning house. Hosanna befriends Gilda when the others would pick a fight or ignore her. Gilda gives Hosanna a healing cream for her hands whose chemical formula was a family secret in her father's cosmetic factory. Hosanna sees the potential for the African-American women of her church.

They go into business with Gilda as the front person in dealing with white bankers and white jobbers to buy the bottles, etc. necessary for doing business. Hosanna convinces P.J. Mooney, an African-American soul food restaurant owner to let them use his restaurant in the off hours to bottle their product. Mooney is married but his eyes and desires aren't. He becomes Hosanna's lover after Gilda cheats her out of her share of the money in the savings account. Bebe Moore Campbell articulates the schism between the indignities towards those of color and those of religious beliefs. Color one can never hide.

Gilda's uncle, an Orthodox Jew, who has taken her in, is a racial bigot who does not know that her business partner is an African-American. He arranges a marriage for Gilda. Her uncle and her first husband find the bank deposit book, take the money, and they close out the account. By the time Gilda finds out, Hosanna has made her arrangement with Mooney. But Gilda does nothing to really find Hosanna. There is a "Henry the explainer" scene late in the book when Gilda explains to Hosanna's daughter but this was the one slightly false note in this superb book. Gilda blames her lack of seeking out Hosanna on her husband and uncle's attitude towards African-Americans..

In this book of over 400 pages, this is only the first story, the book continues with the story of Hosanna's daughter, Matriece. Hosanna has died but her spirit lingers on throughout the book. Gilda has become the Estee Lauder of Los Angeles and the world of cosmetics. Matriece has been imbued with Hosanna's ambition and her need for vengeance from Gilda. Hence, the title. She, too, has gone into the cosmetics business and risen to president of Gilda's division of cosmetics for the African-American woman to be called "Brown Sugar". There are so many well-developed characters and plot lines that it is hard to single them all out.

Bebe addresses the complications of the African-American father to his daughters, the successful African-American father to his well-educated "buppy " son who didn't come up the same hard way, the society mother who considers light skin better, as well as the older woman - younger man. If it's in society today, it's in this book. But well written! As for the mixed marriage of Mexican-American with African-American, she told me that relationship is based on one of her daughters. And her knowledge of Holocaust survivors came from her summer experience as a college exchange student in Brazil living with a Holocaust family. She observed the relations between Jewish women and her mother growing up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood in Philadelphia. Bebe has written a book that will be the subject of many sermons this year as well as Book Clubs.

What is celebrity today based upon? Accomplishment? Notoriety? Natural disasters? In Susan Segal's "Aria" (Bridge Works Publishing $23.95) Eve Miller has lost her husband and two children in a storm at sea. They were sailing around the world, a long time dream of Eve's husband. Eve is on watch the night of the terrible storm when a Japanese fishing boat slashes into their boat and sails on. Eve, her husband and daughter are left on the dinghy while her son is lost in his bunk. Eventually, both her husband and daughter drown and she is left clinging to the raft before she is rescued off the coast of Australia.

In the hospital is another America, the opera singer, Isabel Stein, recuperating from a bad throat. She comes to console Eve and extends to her a refuge in her country home in Connecticut.

Eve has become the object of all the smarmy trash newspapers and television talk shows. She wants no part of any of it. She accepts Isabel's offer. She meets Isabel's young composer, Noah Stewart, who is writing an opera for Isabel based on the wife of Henry VIII. Eve has had very little knowledge of opera, begins to listen to Isabel's recordings. She sees the aging Isabel as the controlling diva both in her marriage and in her vocal coaching lessons.

While Isabel is in New York City, Eve is accosted by a young woman in the market, who seems to be every where Eve is. Eve has the premonition of being followed. The night of Isabel's appearance at the Metropolitan singing "Madam Butterfly" the photographers are all over Eve and the next day there are articles in the paper revealing Eve and Noah in a compromising situation and noting how Eve has imposed on Isabel. Eve realizes that she has been set up to be used by Isabel for publicity.

Eve, like other instant celebrities, has been convinced to write a book. The closer to the event, the higher the publisher's price. It is in her writing in her diary that the reader learns the truth of the accident. It becomes a book within a book.

For her first novel, Segal has written with clarity about society and poignancy about loss. Her ability to build recognizable characters and their interplay make for an exciting read.

8/23/2001

It took reading Paul Zall's "Franklin On Franklin" (The University Press of Kentucky) to begin to put into perspective the past presidential election. Paul Zall is a true intellectual, who is a research scholar at the Huntington Library, and is the author of "Lincoln On Lincoln" as well.

Zall took Benjamin Franklin's autobiography which was published after his death and he has used Franklin's first draft. To fill in the period not covered in his book, Zall used Franklin's letters and his journal in which he wrote about his private life and his opinions of his public life.

Ben Franklin used many humorous characters to express his views of the world. Aside from Poor Richard, there was Silence Dogood, Alice Addertongue and Anthony Afterwit. For it was as a printer and a newspaperman that he thought of himself. Zall explained to me that Franklin was the first entrepreneur who made his money is franchising his apprentices. He would loan them money to start their own printing businesses and they would pay him royalties. This allowed him to retire at the age of forty-two and to become a public servant.

As a young man Ben had traveled to London and had the opportunity to sew his wild oats. He returned to marry Miss Read in Philadelphia, the daughter of the owner of his boarding house. But Miss Read had gotten tired of waiting and married someone else, unhappily. Seems her husband had another wife. She was able to be declared single and she and Ben were married. She was the solid manager of Ben's financial affairs and real estate investments.

As a young married man, Franklin became active in the community, a Masonic, and a founder of the Junto Club. He was definitely a joiner. His ambition was to own land and have a family dynasty. This was the influence of the English, according to Zall.

The officers of the twelve regiments in Philadelphia chose him to be their Colonel, which he declined.

In 1736 he was made Clerk of the General Assembly. In 1748 " the Citizens at large chose me a Burgess to represent them in the Assembly", on taking his seat in the Assembly, his son, Will, was made Clerk. In 1753 he was appointed Postmaster General of America which gave him the chance to meet the other leaders of the other colonies. His fame as a scientist won him the Copley Medal in 1756 from the Royal Society of Arts.

In 1756 he was sent to London to convince Thomas Penn to let the Assembly control its own appropriations. It is the beginning of the revolution with the battle cry of "No taxation without Representation", but at this point in time, diplomacy and persuasion are the weapons of choice as well as Franklin's articles in the English newspapers. I had to remember that Franklin was still under the rule of the King and that his words were considered to be treasonous.

In 1785 on his return to Philadelphia, he was elected governor of Pennsylvania and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where he wished to insert the clause of Abolishing Slavery. Years later, when he was asked about his beliefs, he wrote, "Here is my creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe…. That the most acceptable Service we render to him is doing good to his other Children", He was grateful to the State of Massachusetts for his "first instruction in literature to the free-grammar-schools established there".

At the end, he was bitter that he received no pension from the government for his service, that his franking privilege was taken away and that his son Will remained loyal to King George and moved to England. Plus he suffered from a kidney stone and pleurisy. Zall told me that Franklin, like George Washington who also had vocal problems, would write their speeches and have someone else read them aloud .

It was Franklin who wrote, "Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes".

Which makes one wonder what Ben Franklin would have thought about the election in Florida and the role of the Supreme Court in the election of the president in 2000. Vincent Bugliosi minces words in the title of his new book, "The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined The Constitution And Chose Our President" (Thunder's Mouth Press $9.95). When I talked with Vince, it is hard to doubt his sincerity or his anger at the conflict of interest of five of the Judges and which he documents so clearly. I don't know if Ben Franklin would have gone as far as Bugliosi does in calling for the impeachment and trial of those five as criminals. That might be considered "overkill". He does carp at the ineffectiveness of Gore's attorney in pleading his case before the court. He wishes that the arguments had been presented by Alan Dershowitz or Roy Black or, by Gerry Spence, who writes a brilliant foreword to the book.

Another great citizen who writes a foreword is Molly Ivins, whose columns and humor are sharper and funnier than that serpent's tooth. In all seriousness, she refers to this book as "… the modern equivalent of 'J'Accuse', the famous indictment by the French journalist Emile Zola of his government's misconduct in the Dreyfus affair." Or as she writes, "If you cover politics in Texas, you know how to cover a contested election" and, yes, she does know what a "chad"is. But is that all water under the dam?

As for Gerry Spence, he writes of Power. "Like the church, the law claims ultimate authority, pursues ultimate power, and becomes Power itself. It is by the naked exercise of power that it ensures that Power shall remain in power, little of which has much to do with justice or truth or even simple logic itself." Ben Franklin couldn't have written it better himself. But whether your candidate won or lost, it is worth your time to read this book so that democracy doesn't get lost again. From what I read Vincent Buglosi based his arguments and his reasoning on rules of law, citing chapter, verse and cases.

8/17/2001

Gail Buckley is not only as beautiful as her mother, Lena Horne, but she is an excellent historian and writer. She has written "American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm" (Random House $29.95). It was a picture of her relative Errol Horne in WWI who was a second lieutenant in the new black labor division and who died, a victim of the influenza plague within a year of going overseas that set her off on her journey over fourteen years ago..

The most well known name in the Revolution is Crispus Attucks, but there was Barzillai Lew, who was the fifer-drummer at Bunker Hill; there was Prince Estabrook; and Prince Whipple who was with George Washington; as well as Nero Hawley at Valley Forge. B uckley quotes Lafayette as saying that he never would have helped to found a nation that would tolerate slavery. She notes that there were 5,000 Blacks with Washington and 1,000 with King George III. Slavery had been abolished in England in 1772.

By 1833 Oberlin College under President Asa Mahan admitted women and Black students, including the children of Frederick Douglass. Prior to the Civil War it was the Republican Party that was anti-slavery. Buckley writes about Lincoln considering the possibility of moving the Black population to Haiti or Liberia. At the end of The Civil War there were 186,107 enlisted Black soldiers, 7,122 Black officers in the army and 30,000 sailors. The Navy had been reluctant to commission Black officers.

Gail told me about the horrendous treatment of Blacks in WWI, it was the French Government that appreciated them and rewarded them. The first Americans to be awarded the Croix de Guerre were two Blacks, Sergeant Henry Johnson and Private Needham Roberts. And Black volunteers were there in the Spanish Civil War as well.

Gail told me of her mother's anger when she went to sing for the USO and saw that the Black soldiers were forced to sit behind German POW's. She walked off the stage and from then on entertained only the Black military. Gail told me that the first Navy Cross at Pearl Harbor was awarded to Dorie Miller, a Black sailor. She has a lovely photo in the book taken in 1944 of General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., West Point '36. pinning the Distinguished Flying Cross on his son, Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr..

It was Harry Truman under the influence of General George C. Marshall who integrated the armed services by the time of the Korean War. From that point in time, Vietnam, The Gulf War, there are many names of Black heroes, including that of Colin Powell, who stands at the apex of accomplishment. We talked about the strange turn of events that the US Army is the most democratic institution in the country, truly color blind. I had heard this from Debra Dickerson who wrote of her experiences in the service.

Gail Buckley told me that she wrote this book because with revisionist history the contribution of Blacks to democracy was being lost or left out. I hope someone will consider doing a documentary on this book. It is a powerful testament.

Norman Bogner should be awarded a Croix de Tourism by the French for making Provence so desirable. First in "To Die in Provence" which, of course, did not apply to his hero, Michel Danton, or his heroine, art professor Jennifer Bowen. So here they are preparing to get married in "The Deadliest Art" (Forge Books $23.95) when a body of a beautiful young athlete washes up on the beach minus the skin on her back. She will be the first of three murders.

She is the missing American daughter of a wealthy dot. com billionaire. They were visiting a museum in Belgium when she left her parents to get a cold drink across the street. Another American tourist said she would go with her. That was the last they saw of her till the authorities notified them that it is her body in Provence.

Bogner swings between Venice, CA. the home of the great tattoo artist who yearns to be another Gauguin, painting on the perfect canvas. Hence, the title of the book.

Despite the murders the wedding must go on. Jennifer is still recuperating from her role in the murders in "To Die In Provence." and she has, or so she thought, convinced Michel to resign from all dangerous field work. After all they have inherited an art collection worth two hundred million from his mother's friend, the Madame of the bordello. If you haven't read the first book, you get filled in with enough information.

When we taped, I told Norman that I loved the character of Jennifer's mother who arrives with cartons of toilet paper for the new home, which, Norman confesses ,is a lack in the French civilization. And if you want to salivate, read the menu that Michel's family, who own a restaurant, are planning to serve. I said that his next book should have the recipes for the food he writes about in both books. I won't spoil it for you but there is a scene that is a shocker. Think Hitchcock!

There is an elegant book that Thomas S. Buechner has written called "How I Paint: Secrets of a Sunday Painter (Abrams $29.95). It is so simply written and with such logic. Such as, how to make space? "Put one brushstroke on top of another, the second is nearer to you and it looks nearer." "The ancient formula … the background or the sky first, then the mountains, the trees, the house and finally the foreground weed patch.". On the other hand, he some times reverses the procedure when he is painting and wants to emphasize the silhouette of the main subject.

Buechner's work is beautiful and hardly looks like a Sunday painter. I would call it overly modest on his part, since he has been a sought after art teacher, in this country and in Germany, who has painted over 2500 paintings, many of them in museums around the world. On first seeing his work I would have thought it was the work of John Singer Sargent.

For the artist, he demonstrates step by step, from the first sketch with pencil to the final oil painting, how to achieve the results. Even if you do not paint, any one who can write of a camera, "I try never to be without one. It's an idea machine, it can stop the sun, freeze a flower, nail an expression". Well, he will make you glow with the beauty of words and art. There is something about art that, like religion, heightens life's experience.

8/10/2001

What do prima ballerinas do when they start to age and the legs begin to go? They can go back home and get married. They can teach ballet to little girls. Or they can go back to college, take writing courses and tell the stories of backstage at the “Met”, the highs and lows of devoting a life to dance; which is what Adrienne Sharp has done in “White Swan, Black Swan” (Random House $21.95).

Adrienne Sharp danced with the Harkness Ballet in New York. She received a M.A. with honors from The Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University. With those credentials, she has written a series of short stories that are bound together by the world of ballet. There are the male ballet stars who really, really like women, which is the first story about Ridley who wants to marry Joanna, with whom he has been living since she was fifteen. This is the world of hot plates in hotel rooms and washing clothes in the bathtubs and the on-going aches and pains of sore muscles.

Adrienne uses her novelist imagination to get under the skin of the ballet icons. In “Don Quixote” she dances with the emotions of George Balanchine who becomes obsessed with Suzanne Farrell while his wife, the one time brilliant dancer, Tanaquil Le Clerq, is imprisoned in an iron lung as a result of polio. Balanchine had been known for replacing one ballet dancing wife with another younger one. But he met his match in Farrell. He designs ballets with only her in mind. As an aside having just seen the Kirov in London dancing Balanchine’s ballet “Jewels”. Visually, it became richer from having read Sharp’s version of his doomed love. Farrell, whose mother wanted her to marry Balanchine, marries someone else. Balanchine bars her from Lincoln Center, from the studios and the theatre and she was no longer an employee of New York City Ballet. It would be six years before she would return.

Sharp performs this same emotional fiction transference with Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev, as well as with Baryshnikov and Alexander Godunov. The girl, Joanna, in the first story, will return years later to try to convince her brother, who is a dancer in San Diego, to come to NewYork. They will communicate by dancing a pas de deux. The stories are the material for what could be a longer novel on their own.

It’s not Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or even Father’s Day. But just because “I Love You Day”. There is a darling, funny book called “The Grandfather Thing” (Tallfellow Press $16.95) by Saul Turteltaub who is, quess what, a grandfather. There is credit given “with the real poop by Max, age 1”. Saul writes that like all good grandfathers, he prayed for a healthy baby but “…it matters to me that he looks like the other grandfather”.

Saul goes month by month with Max making his observations and a poem. At 4 months Max and the family go to New York for a family wedding. Max observes that if you are going to feed me, tell me to open my mouth, since he has no idea what a garage door is.

Along, the way, Saul talks about his wife and as he told me when we taped she is so in love with this kid that she would turn down an invitation to the White House on the off chance that she would be needed to baby sit. One can only guess that a “Grandmother Thing” is in the works. But by six months, Max is made a permanent fixture in the will when one of Saul’s poker buddies looks at Max’s picture and turns to Saul and says, “He’s got your smile”.

Max’s eleventh month poem comments on what he has learned, “So many words I’ve yet to learn, But what seems to be a shame; The one that will be toughest is my own last name. Tur…Truh…turlet…Turder…..

8/3/2001

When is a bookstore not a bookstore? When Book Soup on Sunset Blvd. hosted a book party for Skip E. Lowe's book "The Boy With The Betty Grable Legs" (Belle Publishing $17.95). It was a musical love fest. After all how many book parties have pickles, corned beef sandwiches and a punch with cognac catered with love by Gary Canter of Canter's Delicatessen? Not to mention that the music was supplied by Noel Harrison on his guitar, singing in French, as he used to do when he introduced Skip E. Lowe in his London nightclub. And the wonderful Mimi Hines singing "For All We Know We May Never Meet Again" and presenting Skip E. with love was Grace Robbins who told me that she is writing her autobiography entitled, "Cinderella and the Carpetbagger". Cheering things along were Francine York, Marvin Paige, Margery Roth, Sally Kirkland, Marilyn Burk, Ellie Vallee, and the rest of Skip E. Lowe's fan club. Leading the cheers were Gail and Roger Dauer.

All of this would be wonderful on its own, but the book, which is subtitled "A Showbiz Memoir" and "An outrageous look inside Hollywood" could also have included that it is a doubly outrageous look at how America treated people who were considered "Different". Skip E. was born Sammy Labella and brought up in Rockford, Illinois by his macho Italian father and his Jewish mother. He liked her clothes and make-up more than football and baseball. But he learned early that if he made the kids on his block laugh, he stood a chance of not getting beat up on the way to school. But he didn't count on the day when he was nine and four boys stopped in the park and not only beat him up but raped and committed sodomy on him, leaving him bloody and injured.

His mother took him to the doctor, his father called him a "sissy" and asked what he did to bring this on? The police took the four boys who attacked him to jail which only brought more wrath from the neighborhood. With this as a background, his mother took Skip E. to Hollywood to make him a star. He laughed as he told me when we taped that she became the epitome of the stage mother. What she never knew was what happened to her son at the Beverly Hills Hotel the day they were to meet his new agent.

Skip E. went to the Professional Children's School and finally got a part in the film "Best Foot Forward". His mother went back to Rockford and Skip E. went to New York and Sammy's Bowery Follies. From there he learned to be a comic and an M.C. for nightclubs, strip joints, etc. in Chicago, Detroit, New York and Europe. In Paris he met Margee McGlory, with whom he entertained the troops in Germany and France. Together they were Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, totally fearless as they traveled to Vietnam to entertain those troops. As we talked I asked Skip E. to sing a little of "Danny Boy" which was his song in Vietnam.

If Skip E. takes off after someone in the book, he gives enough good reasons. But mostly he is a man of good will. His stories about living at the Park Savoy Hotel in New York City would make a great sitcom, as would his life including the past twenty years as a pioneer of cable TV with his show, "Skip E. Lowe's Hollywood" .

Add to that list of Hollywood autobiographies Ken Annakin's "So You Wanna Be A Director?". Ken was born in England and would have ended up a book keeper if he hadn't won a bet on a race which gave him the where withal to travel to Australia. By luck he met some people making a film and he caught the film bug.

During WWII he met Sidney and Muriel Box. They gave him the opportunity to direct a film and signed him to a long term contract. Yet, they were understanding when he had the opportunity to do a Disney film. Ken told me how Walt Disney sang for him. His stories of working with Glynis Johns in "Miranda" and her subsequent seduction scenes with him are a delight. One has the feeling that Ken had many leading ladies at his beck and call.

In 1962 he worked on "The Longest Day" and in 1965 "Those Magnificent Men In their Flying Machines". The story of how that film got made is a case study for any film school. His work with Zanuck whom he told to get off his shoulder when he, Ken, was directing, is a remarkable Hollywood story. Ken told me that he has directed 49 films. There are also a few that are still waiting to be finished, due to lack of funds.

We talked about the awkwardness of taking over a film when the first director has been fired. Ken has had a working team with his co-writer ,Jack Davies, and his cameraman ,and finally, the most important team member, his right hand person, his wife, Pauline, who like all good director's wives, smoothed the waves for him.

Susan Bullington Katz has collected her interviews that appeared in "Written By" in a book, entitled Conversations With Screenwriters" (Heinemann $17.95). It's a superb book with in depth knowledge of the art of writing for film with writers such as Ruth Prawer Jhabvala ,Ron Bass, Sherman Alexie, David Mamet, etc. It is well worth buying this book as a guide.

7/27/2001

An unsung heroine of architecture who has put her mark on Los Angeles where ever you look is Brenda Levin. She has been recognized as the subject for "The Master Architect Series V" "BRENDA LEVIN; Levin & Associates Architects, Los Angeles" (Images Publishing $40.00). Like a plastic surgeon who does reconstructive work, Brenda has taken the original architect's work, cleaned it up, readjusted, and restored them for a second life which will endure seismic activity.

Buildings that she and her firm have resuscitated include The Bradbury Building to which she added a portico entrance from a park in the rear, The Grand Central Market, The Pellessier Building and The Wiltern Theatre, The Oviatt Building, Griffith Observatory and Los Angeles City Hall. Levin has worked with developers, Wayne Ratkovitch and later with Ira Yellin. Her creative work has also changed the face of educational institutions.

We talked about the buildings at Occidental and Scripps where she held Visioning Charettes to make sure that the context of the project stays coordinated. I confessed that I had not heard the word "charette" before. There is an example on page 76.

It looks a lot like the seminars that the Coro Foundation used to hold when I worked there as the Public Relations Director and where I first met Brenda and her husband, David Abel. Brenda attended Carnegie-Mellon University and was graduated from New York University with a degree in graphic design, but it was her love of architecture that brought her to Harvard where she earned a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in 1976.

I mentioned that I loved the look of the buildings at the Oakwood School and that one of the pictures of the stairwells had the look of a lego set, she laughed and said that was her son, Eliot Abel, in the picture. The photography and the architectural drawings are worth the book alone.

Two buildings in the book demonstrate the architects respect for humanity. One is the rebuilding of the Downtown Women's Center which gives a sense of dignity to those who have to live for a time within its walls. The other is the Adams Congress Apartments in south Los Angeles, which was built as a result of the 1992 riots. Levin & Associates were asked to create an island of safety on a burned out site in the West Adams district. There are 46 units with a community learning center with street access, a recreation room and a play area. Currently it is home to more than 60 children and their families. The buildings sparkled in the photographs, but it is five years later and I asked if it was still in this condition and without graffitti? Brenda assured me it was and that the inhabitants had a pride of living.

Although we didn't have the time to pursue the interrelationship of politics and architecture, that subject was brought to mind with a magnificent book on Mies van der Rowe, entitled "Mies In America" edited by Phyllis Lambert (Abrams $75.00). Lambert is the architect and founding director of the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, and was responsible for the selection of Mies van der Rowe as the architect for the Seagram Building. The book examines his work in America and its cultural context. In the 1940's Mies created collages with George Danforth, he had always been a selective art collector. He was particularly fond of Max Beckmann's Alfi with Mask which was a gift for his fiftieth birthday from his friends, colleagues and former students from the Bauhaus. It was in Chicago that he built his ITT building for he University of Chicago.

The first book on Mies that I ever read was by Elaine S. Hochman, entitled "Architects of Fortune: Mies van der Rowe and the Third Reich" (Weidenfeld & Nicholson $22.50). This is a more psychological look at Mies. In 1937 Mies came to the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. He never spoke about his last years there.. Brenda Levin, as most modern architects do, credit Mies for his influence. He was the father of modern steel and glass skyscrapers and the head of the Bauhaus school in Germany. Mies became a citizen in 1944. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom of the United States in 1963. He died in 1969 at 83 having changed the concept of aesthetics in architecture.

Definitely a prophet with honor is Frank Gehry. He is the twenty first century's creative magician. He has rearranged how the eye takes in a building. The book, "Frank Gehry, Architect" is written by Jean-Louis Cohen, Beatriz Colomina, William Mitchell NS j. Fiona Racher (Abrams $85.00). The book contains photographs, drawings, plans and scale models, as well as essays. It has become a pilgrimage for art lovers to visit the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain. If you want to see what the Walt Disney Concert Hall is going to look like, it's there on page 189. It is noted that Gehry consulted with musicians, accousticians and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the music director of the LA Philharmonic. Words can't describe the beauty of this book; but it will definitely be more than just a coffee table book.

7/20/2001

If you need a laugh, James Wolcott's "The Catsitters" (Harper Collins $25.00) will fill the bill. Think in terms of Sex and the Single Guy in the City. John Downs is a part-time bartender when he is not working as an actor in commercials and in little theatre in New York City. His live-in companion is his beloved cat, Slinky. His biggest problem is finding someone to catsit when he goes away for a weekend. He thought he could trust his girlfriend, Nicole, but, not only did she not take care of the cat but she found someone else to take care of her.

Johnny is confused as to what to do. At such times he turns to his friend, Darlene, in Georgia for aid and advice. And, boy, does she have plenty of that. The book is her guide to Johnny via phone calls on how to get back at Nicole; how to make a woman, Amanda in this case, fall in love with him; how to give an opening night party; how to dress in a blue shirt, etc. etc. It is when she sends him two women to catsit that he learns the real truth about Darlene, she is not the Delphi oracle in her won life.

The book is concerned with Johnny's career in theatre which ends up with him writing a play. Wolcott gives the reader the behind the scenes view of soap operas and their emphasis on youth while getting rid of the old time players with some semblance of dignity. It really is a nice group of people in semi-humorous situations. I asked James Wolcott to read a section of his book where Johnny returns to Maryland to visit his grandmother in the hospital and he notes, "I was struck, and not for the first time, by the realization that over the years my parents had become more real for me over the phone than in person." He goes on to write, "Sometimes the stutter-step was more severe, when they seemed to have aged suddenly after years of staying on the same visible plateau."

James Walcott is a Contributing Writer to "Vanity Fair". He has written and been on staff of "Esquire", "New Yorker", etc. He disclaimed that his specialty had been only criticism, listing for me the varied subjects about which he had written essays. But, there are those in New York and in the literati who maybe looking to take pot shots. If so, they don't know a book that is a Comedy of Manners when it bites them.

Every once in a while I hear from a writer in New York City named Sol Rubin, who has written "War Vignettes", with stories of his combat experiences during the African-European campaigns. The book includes photographs that he took in WWII. Today, he writes and publishes a newsletter on International Poetry. If you would like your poems to be considered write to him at PO 40, NY, NY 10038. Currently he is teaching a film series at Brooklyn College.

Johns Hopkins Medical Institution which is ranked as one of the top medical centers, has published "Johns Hopkins Symptoms & Remedies" under Dr. Simon Margolis, Medical Editor (REBUS, dist. Random House). Of course, it carries the warning about see your physician first. An example is Hip Pain with thirteen possible causes and the distinguishing features. Such as Obesity and its features of shortness of breath, knee or hip pain, or abdominal pain from gallstones all result from the complications of obesity. Or Osteoporosis with easily fractured bones, gradual loss of height, stooped or hunched position. The second half of the book on Disorders, all end with information of when to call the doctor.

The other big, and I do mean big, book is "The Complete Home Wellness Handbook" by John Edward Swartzberg, M.D., F.A.C.P., and Sheldon Margen, M.D. and the editors of the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter (REBUS) This book is focused more on prevention, what are the best screening tests, immediate care, an A to Z index of ailments, a guide to drugstores and over the counter medicine, and an Appendix for where to go for more information. It's a good idea to keep both books handy and read them before you need to when you are hysterical over an event.

Living through traumas may leave your psyche with scars. Harold Bloomfield, M.D. has written with Philip Goldberg, Ph.D. "Making Peace With Your Past" (Quill $13.00). Over the years I have talked with Harold about his other books, including "Making Peace With Your Parents" where he advised writing a letter to them even if they are dead to relieve any pain or anguish. He definitely links childhood adversity with adult illnesses, because what you resist, persists. He advises to write the story of your life with remembrances from the heart.

Bloomfield reveals his own periods of turmoil when he was at Yale, and how he found what he calls his quintessential peace through transcendental meditation. We talked about guilt and clinical depression and the avoidance of guilt-inducing thought patterns. This is a valuable book for every home to have. He or she who claims to have never felt guilt or a sense of depression is a robot or a liar.

7/13/2001

The grass was the green that tennis players dream about when they think of Wimbledon and The All England Lawn & Croquet Club. It was June 25th, 2001, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was hot and the idea that there could be a drop of rain in the future - well, only a pessimist would have hazarded a thought. One can read "The History of Wimbledon" and "A Guide To The Championships" with all the rules and regulations for those attending; but nothing prepares you for that first pristine moment when last year's winner, Pete Sampras, walked on the court and stood at the still green service line and tossed the ball into the air.

For the first four days, I could see Allen Fox's "Think to Win" (Harper Perennial $10.00) in action. One could see that Venus Williams was jousting with her opponent, losing interest and then deciding to go in for the kill. Or one would have thought watching Andre Agassi put his bags down just so and arranging the chairs in order, that, not only does he have a very anal personality but that his methodical on point behavior would establish him as a winner again this year. According to Fox, Agassi played not only "percentage tennis" but he knew how to use the wind and court geometry to win the point.

I never ate strawberries and cream, the line was too long; but I did see every tennis book, I ever read, in action.

Travel books take the mystery and confusion out of being a stranger in a strange land. I had read and reread the DK Publishing books on Ireland ($29.95) and Dublin ($23.95) which pride themselves as being "The Guides That Show You What Others Only Tell You" and that they do with advice on restaurants, hotels, maps, etc. But they are printed on beautiful silky paper that weighs a ton when carried. So I used them before I left and I copied some information; but I relied on old faithful Berlitz ($14.95) from 1993 because history doesn't change and it weighs a lot less.

If your name is O'Brian, or O'Brien, get ready to go to Dromoland Castle and the gathering of the clan being prepared by Lord Inchiquin of Thomond House. He is Chief of the Chiefs of the Irish clans. It is all a little bit "tribalistic" but as one reads the history of Ireland in novels by Morgan Llywelyn, such as "Pride of Lions" (Forge) or "Brian Boru" (Tor $22.95), who was the father of the O'Brian clan, it becomes clear why there is a need to protect their identity. Brian Boru became king of all Ireland in 1002, and defeated the Norsemen in 1014, which freed the country from foreign interference. It wasn't until 1171 that Henry II conquered Ireland in the name of England, thus beginning the friction that exists until today.

It was thanks to Tauck Tours that I had the opportunity to see and meet the people that Thomas Kenneally wrote about in "The Great Shame". These are the farmers who survived the potato famine, the hostility towards Catholics and the mistreatment by the land owners. They saw relatives imprisoned and sent to Australia. They saw relatives beg, borrow and steal to get to America. Today the South of Ireland is flourishing, every house is freshly painted and Dublin is called "the Silicon Valley" of Ireland.

A good book to read on the plane is Malika Oufkir's "Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail" (Talk Miramax/Hyperion $23.95) which recounts her early years as the adopted playmate for the daughter of the King of Morocco. This was not unusual in those years. Her real father, General Mohammad Oufkir, was known for being ruthless and power hungry.

When the King died and his son, Hassan II, took office, the General attempted two failed coups on the King's life. Malika, by this time, was living at her real parents' home. She writes about visiting Los Angeles, wanting to become an actress, meeting film stars and accepting hospitality from well-known Beverly Hills personalities.

When her father failed in his last attempt to kill the King, he was punished by death and his family, including Malika, were first put under house arrest, then in various prisons, each worse than the last. No one, even, her grandfather, would or could help them. Only by luck and finally thanks to a French radio broadcaster was any attention paid to this family of five children and the mother. How they escaped, how they were released and how they managed to make a life again is the basis of novels.

I did tell Malika that I had only heard good things about King Hassan II and that friends whom I had called about her book had at first stated that it wasn't true, etc. But it was. Another brilliant book about man's inhumanity to man and the denial of it is Micheline Aharonian Marcom's "Three Apples Fell From Heaven" (Riverhead Books $23.95). This is the story of the Turkish war against the Armenians. First they came for the men, then the young boys, then they took the women and children after burning the houses.

Marcom writes like Chagall paints. There is a primitive, yet sophisticated style to her writing. She uses many plot lines to tell her story. Her character, Anaguil, a young girl caught in the torment, is loosely based on her grandmother who lost her parents to the Turks and was placed in Muslim family. She must keep telling the story of their lives as a means to keep them alive.

The story that I found most human was about Lucine, a young woman with a young brother, who might also be her son, who goes to work for the American Consul. He makes love to her while she remains his maid and servant. All she wants is for him to help get her brother/son immigration papers that never come. It is a book of dark dreams that live in the real world around us.

7/6/2001

How bad can it be? Diana Moore thinks it is the worst day of her life in Kathleen DeMarco's "Cranberry Queen" (talk miramax books $21.95). She has been invited to a wedding where her ex-boyfriend will be with his new girl friend. It's not as if she doesn't have a good job in New York City and she decides that she will be the perfect single guest, "I will be the Katherine Hepburn (at thirty-three, not eighty) of the wedding."

This is BAD! That night there is a car accident where a drunken truck driver slams into her parent's car and kills her mother, father and brother. She never makes it to the wedding, instead she has to face a congregation at their funeral and attempt to say a few words about them. This all takes place by page fifteen. How does a single, now financially well-off person handle such great tragedy?

Diana retreats to her bed as if to ward off reality; but after four months of this, her friends and one relative force a confrontation and insist she see a therapist. Instead she takes to her car and returns to the area of Pine Barrens, New Jersey, where they grow cranberries, thus the title. Kathleen told me that it was in Pine Barrens that her grandfather purchased acres of land and where, outside of Cape Cod, cranberry bogs flourish.

On one of the country lanes Diana hits a woman on a motorcycle. She is a white hair elderly woman, Rosie. Riding with her is her grand daughter, Louisa. Louisa and Diana will become dueling friends. They begin with that "can you top this" I went to Harvard, I went to Princeton. So now they know that they are on equal footing. Diana does not tell them what she is fleeing from. It is as if she has fallen into a "Brigadoon".

Meanwhile DeMarco has written a visually engrossing novel with the sound of the Gen X conversation. The ending is a little bit too fortuitous but by that point the reader likes Diana and is willing to wish her well. This is Kathleen Demarco's first novel. Up to now she has been a film producer in New York City. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with degrees from both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School of Business and has a graduate degree in film from Boston University . Her parents are alive and well in New Jersey.

Light the fireworks on the fourth of July, and then read Paul Lussier's novel based on historical research, "Last Refuge of Scoundrels" (Warner Books $26.95). The book is told through the eyes of a young boy, John Lawrence, from South Carolina who has come to Boston in 1763 with his merchant father, who is looking forward to having dinner with Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, the representative of the King. John wanders around Boston and at the Green Dragon tavern overhears John Hancock, Samuel and John Adams talking about the rebellion. He meets Deborah Simpson, a prostitute, who seems to know everyone and who will, in male dress, end up working as a spy for George Washington.

John enrolls at Harvard, where he is brutally teased by the older class members. Paul Lussier is a graduate of Yale and one wonders if he too underwent some hazing in his day. Meanwhile that night at dinner, the rebels attack the governor's mansion and John hides under the table while his father runs for his life and Deborah is last seen being raped by her own fellow rebels. Lussier mixes historical fact with a humor that recalls a Tristam Shandy character with the bite of Swift in "What to do with the Irish Babies". As no man is a hero to his valet, no historical icons are without their flaws.

John Hancock is a snob. Jefferson, as we now know, was a bigot in his youth and George Washington had nothing to do with that cherry tree. As Paul Lussier recounts the battles of the Revolution, it is amazing that we ever won. The character of John Lawrence was based on Lt. Colonel John Laurens who in 1777 became one of Washington's aides, he was picked to negotiate the terms of surrender with Cornwallis's aides. The book is an easy way to refresh your memory of the Revolution and the men who would sign the Declaration of Independence and write the Constitution . Amazing and funny. John and Deborah are the "Zeligs" of the Revolutionary War.